A difficult weekend for Sharks

The Sharks are playing a division, for better or for worse, where it doesn’t take just a bad month, or a bad week, or even a bad weekend, to turn things sour.

A bad period or two will do it in the Atlantic Division these days.

Worcester had one bad period, one so-so period, and one good one in losing to the Hartford Wolf Pack yesterday at the DCU Center, 2-1. The outcome re-arranged the Atlantic Division standings a little. The Sharks remain in third place with 30 points, but Hartford moved up into a tie for third. They are both just two points away from being in sixth, and four points away from being in last.

The loss finished a disappointing three-in-three weekend for Worcester. It went 1-2-0, with both losses being to the Wolf Pack. The Sharks won the first three games they played vs. Hartford this season, but have lost the last two. They are just 3-10-0 against the Wolf Pack in the last two years.

Former Holy Cross standout Patrick Rissmiller and Jordan Owens had the two goals for Hartford, with both coming in the first period. After that the Wolf Pack, also playing its third game in three days, hung on behind solid goaltending by Matt Zaba.

Cory Larose had the Sharks goal, scoring his 12th of the season at 4:41 of the second period. That gave Worcester plenty of time to come back, but it did not happen.

“We had our chances,” coach Roy Sommer said, “and even when it was 2-0, I thought we’d still win the game.”

Especially considering how much power-play time Worcester had in the third period — eight minutes of it, to be exact. Early in the period, from 3:08 to 9:50, the Sharks were on a power play for six minutes in a span of 6:42 and still could not score.

The power play has become a major issue for the Sharks. With a better one, they might even be in first place with the division being as close as it is.

“With our power play,” Sommer said, “the (point men) just don’t get the puck to the net. They don’t want to shoot it. It’s a shooting power play, and they don’t want to shoot it.”

Yesterday’s loss was another case of Worcester having a big advantage in shots on goal, but being outscored by the opposition.

The final totals were 36-19 in favor of the Sharks, and that included a 27-10 advantage in the final two periods.

Riley Armstrong had eight shots for Worcester and had 18 shots on goal in the three games for the weekend, and one goal.

“I’d be complaining,” he said, “If I weren’t getting shots on net. They’re gonna go in eventually, if you keep getting shots. We had our chances, but we missed a lot of chances. (Hartford) outworked us in the first 40 minutes, then we came back hard for the last 20.

“But if we score first, we win that game.”

Rissmiller gave the Wolf Pack the lead at 4:33 of the first period, getting his second goal of the season as he finished a two-on-one break with Greg Moore. Moore sent the puck over to Rissmiller coming down the right side and he flipped a backhander just under the crossbar.

Hartford made it a 2-0 game at 14:14 with Owens getting his fourth of the season.

He also came down the right side and was able to get a step on Patrick Traverse; as Owens went down, he whacked the puck toward the net and it hit Jason Demers and went past Thomas Greiss.

“It was a prayer,” said Demers of the play. “He was on the ice and just sent it across. It hit my skate and went top shelf.”

Ryan Vesce’s steal in the neutral zone set up Larose.

He cut across the bottom of the slot and flipped a short wrist shot past Zaba to get Worcester back into it.

The Sharks had plenty of time, and plenty of shots and plenty of chances, but wound up with no points to show for it.